


Birdsong

by TwixxCatt



Series: Superhero Soul Songs [8]
Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Other, Racist Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 14:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12654966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwixxCatt/pseuds/TwixxCatt
Summary: Okay sorry I haven't written in forever, and sorry this is sort of different





	Birdsong

**Author's Note:**

> Okay sorry I haven't written in forever, and sorry this is sort of different

Sam Wilson is born in a moving taxi, the sound of gunshots rigging in the distance stop his sound from being heard. By the time all is quiet he sleeps and his song is too quiet to hear. No one hears his song until the next day, he wakes with the birds and adds his own tune to their morning melody. This sets the tone for the first half of Sam's life.

Every morning Sam sings with the birds. They flock to him and he loves them. His song intertwines with theirs and he Knows that he belongs. The birds love him as one of their own. His life continues this way until he is 8, an extraordinarily long time for a song to stay unchanged, but he can't escape the gunshots he was born to. His father, his dad, his sweet sweet dad, is shot on his way back from the church where he has shared God's word for longer than Sam had been alive. 

Sam is 10 and the only birds that still respond when he calls are wild things. The pigeons he raised all left a long time go, no prey birds will respond to him, no, he only gets responses from dangerous birds who don't fear the pain and rage that courses through his song. His mom tries her best to support his family, and refuses to let him help. His dad is gone, his sisters are sad, and his mom is overworked. He doesn't understand why he can't HELP. 

But he listens to his Momma, he graduates school, (despite people telling his he can't, that's he's dumb, that he's black and because of that he ain't worth nothing) and the Air Force must decide that like the look him because they peruse him. And he goes. 

By the time he gets selected as a test pilot for the EXO-FALCON his song is a barely tamed wild thing. His soul screams pain and anger but now it's tempered with purpose. The other pilot, Riley, goes through the entire training with him as a partner and never asks about the pain he can feel forever present. That's half the reason Sam falls for him, the rest comes later, shared missions leading to unbreakable trust and long nights spent talking. Riley is the reason Sam's song finally mellows out, a melody like a spring day woven into the bird calls.

Riley falls, he gets hit and he falls, and Sam can't do anything but watch. He watches as the love of his life falls to his death. His soul splits like lighting, the spring day turns into a summer storm, wild, frenzied, on the cusp of being forever uncontrollable.

Sam leaves the Air Force, he can't stay, not after Riley, he works at the veterans agency. Trying to help others who have had to face the same horrors he has. He's a therapist there, his clients all knowing he needs help more than them (they can hear it in his song, a song of falcon screams and lighting) and yet he is the best therapist there. 

He meets Captain America, he goes with him, because even if he's still broken he can't just sit anymore, it's killing him. When he gets the new wings, when he can FLY again, the storm in his soul settles to a light rain, because up in the sky he can feel Riley and he isn't so alone. And then he gets the drone from Tony Stark, the drone he names Red Wing (Riley’s code name, he can't fly without Ry watching his back) he FEELS his soul healing. 

Sam Wilson may never be able bring in birds that don't hunt, and he certainly will never see the love of his life again, but that's okay. Because he can still fly, his soul can still sing a falcon to him, he can still smile. 

When Sam Wilson dies, of old age, his friends hear his soul leave. The song they hear sends them to their knees with the beauty of it. A keening melody that wails of love lost and then found, and then they must wait an hour to leave, because all the birds in the entire city have collected to sing the loss of the only human that even had a soul like theirs


End file.
